Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says Facebook should have removed a racist page that portrayed Aboriginal people as drunks and addicts. Source: AP
FEDERAL Communications Minister Stephen Conroy insists Facebook should have taken down a racist page that portrayed Aborigines as drunks who sniff petrol and bludge on welfare.
The creator removed content from the Aboriginal Memes Facebook page following a barrage of complaints to Facebook, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Human Rights Commission.
But Mr Conroy says Facebook itself should have acted to shut down the site.
"I think it's absolutely inappropriate," he told ABC TV on Wednesday.
"This page should be taken down by Facebook.
"We don't live by American laws here in Australia, we live by Australian laws and this is an Australian who is using the fact that Facebook is based in the US to get away from Australian laws."
Race Discrimination Commissioner Helen Szoke has said the page could be in breach of Australia's anti-discrimination laws.
Mr Conroy said Facebook had an employee in Australia "and we are in conversation with that employee".
He said in the past court orders had been ignored in the US so the key was obtaining "co-operation" from Facebook.
Dr Szoke earlier said young people needed to be more educated about the harm that could be caused by misusing social media.
Organisations like Facebook needed stricter standards, she added.
SBS has reported the racist site was created by a 16-year-old Perth boy.
Indigenous boxer Anthony Mundine had joined a group of Australians supporting a campaign condemning Facebook over its initial claims that the page was not considered hate speech.
�
0 comments:
Post a Comment